CD Reviews

Good but overdone

f. katz | NY, USA | 11/28/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The score is delightful -- a real classic. But Ella Logan overdoes it with the Irish accent when she's singing. I'm eager to hear the new score, with Kate Baldwin singing; I thought she was terrific in the current Broadway production."

The first album I ever owned

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 04/11/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For all of us of a certain age, there's a first ever 45 rpm record to come into our lives, also a very first album. FINIAN'S RAINBOW was mine. I was perhaps 7 years old when my mom gave me her set of 10" COLUMBIA green label 78s of this very recording you're viewing. Almost 50 years later I can still sing most of the lyrics to these wonderful Harburg & Lane tunes. Enough about me though.

This reissued CD is top shelf stuff. Excellent sound, clearer than you've ever heard from vinyl or shellac. One improvement is an earlier take of "The Begat" that was originally rejected because of one extraneous thump. This version, totally "new" to us long-time fans, is absolutely superior to the one we're so familiar with. It has more exuberance and seems fresher.

"Finian's" was the first Broadway production to win the Best Show Tony, and deservedly so. These marvelous tunes are some of the Great White Way's best and the story is most interesting.

TRIVIA:Ella Logan (born Georgina Allan), stars as Sharon McLonergan. Ella was a Scotswoman and had a prominent Scottish brogue. When she sings here, it's not an Irish accent you perceive but her natural Scots brogue, unembellished.

David Wayne (Og the leprechaun) was the first recipient of the Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony award, for FINIAN'S RAINBOW. He also won a Best Actor Tony for "Teahouse of the August Moon" and originated the role of Ensign Pulver in the Broadway production of "Mr. Roberts."

Donald Richards (Woody) had a short Broadway career (3 shows). He was killed in a traffic accident in 1953, at age 34.

Irish-born Albert Sharpe (Finian) appeared in the movie version of BRIGADOON (1954) and had the lead in Disney's DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1959).

According to back cover liner notes of the 1965 Mitchell Trio LP, SLIGHTLY IRREVERENT (MERCURY Records), lyricist E.Y. Harburg's nickname wasn't Yip. It was YIT. (Harburg contributes political doggerel to this album.)"